After the diesel scandal, vw turned to new leadership and electric cars.

Volkswagen’s new chief executive, Herbert Diess, said in a speech at a press conference in wolfsburg, Germany, on April 13. The company has turned the tide in its diesel emissions fraud scandal, saying its future is electric.
Fabian beamer/Reuters.
Volkswagen is trying to reverse the emissions cheating scandal by pushing diesel to electric vehicles.
Germany’s biggest carmaker, the world’s biggest carmaker by sales, has a new leader in Herbert Diess, a big shift that has brought new changes.
The company has admitted to installing “fraud equipment” to cover up the pollution of diesel vehicles. Michael horn, Volkswagen’s chief executive, took part in the brooklyn stage in 2015, the first of many apologies by the company’s leaders.
“Our company is not honest with the epa, the California air resources board and all of you,” he said. “In my German, we totally screwed up.”
To solve the problem, Volkswagen has paid more than $20 billion in fines and settlements. Europe still has an investigation. Last week, German authorities raided porsche’s headquarters, a Volkswagen subsidiary, for alleged fraud and manipulation of diesel emissions tests.
Jack fisher, head of automotive testing at Consumer Reports, says the company is now almost perfect when it takes the business to a new direction.
“They need to really get rid of diesel,” he said. He said the company did not appear to be interested in electric cars or fuel economy before the diesel scandal.
The vw e-golf electric car will be unveiled at the Frankfurt motor show in September.
Sean Gallup/getty images.
Volkswagen has an electric car called e-golf, but fisher says it’s just window paint. “They took a Volkswagen golf ball, they put some batteries in it, and they did it… They can have electric cars, “he said.In many ways, he says, the diesel scandal has played an important role in Volkswagen. It has invested too much in diesel technology – and has been for years.
Considering other brands owned by Volkswagen, including bentley, porsche or lamborghini, performance and style often exceed fuel economy. But that has begun to change.
Matthias Erb, vw’s chief engineering officer in North America, says that almost all of the brands and corporate sectors will get some sort of electricity supply.
“Electrification will be the powertrain of the future,” he said. He acknowledged that, as the Volkswagen diesel scandal was bad for the company, it “supported and accelerated the transformation of the electrification direction.”
Joel Levin, who owns Plug In America, is skeptical of electric car owners, and he is skeptical about VW’s plans.
“Everything they talked about and the investments they were making sounded very exciting, but I wanted to see cars coming out,” Mr. Levin said. He noted that most big carmakers “are talking about big investments and turning to power.”
Levin has two words for the public and others: “show me.”